Well I certainly seem to have stirred up emotions and a hornets nest with regards to my publication a week ago.
The good Mr. Le Good lobs into the arena a piece of research that is out of date and submits no reference to it. HCV and HIV are blood-borne viruses and are not just spread by dirty needles, but can be passed on via contaminated clothing, a blanket, etc., and are at best very challenging to modern day medicines.
Both Mr. Good and Mr. Gamble mention criminalization of drug addicts is pointless. I didn’t mention it, but I agree to the point that all narcotic drugs should be decriminalized and taxed with all the proceeds going to the health system.
I did provide an alternative to the harm reduction system which plainly Mr. Le Good has not read. I reiterate. Prof. Neil McKeganey’s book (2011) Drugs Policy and Practice. He is one of the major forefathers of harm reduction and explains why it failed and how Sweden turned it around.
Mr. Gamble’s anecdotal story of the homeless person is very worthy but where is the responsibility from that individual to make sure he takes his medicine?
He has done well to keep off the ‘juice’ but tens of thousands don’t and we, the taxpayer, have to pay for their lifestyle.
Forty years ago the mentally ill were not to any real extent partaking in narcotic drugs, but since the secure mental homes were closed, they are on the streets and easy meat for the drug dealers.
By the way, my clinic is in the infamous 900 block of Pandora where I see it all the time, including drug dealers coming out of the methadone clinic with handfuls of new syringes etc.
I will leave it to the taxpayer, where do you want you hard earned money to end up?”
Dr. Anthony Mathews
Cobble Hill